Top paying DFW ISD ? (Dallas: health insurance, credit, buy)

[LarryTX]

Hello

Can someone tell me what the top paying school ISD's are for teachers in the DFW area ?

Also, how does the "teacher retirement" work ? Do you get a set pension yearly or do you choose a percentage per month ? How many years must you work until you can retire ?

I have a friend who just retired from the military and is considering a second career (and second retirement...) as a teacher.

Thank you !

[jdallas]

sounds like your friend is going to be a real asset to those children. Another future pensioner gathering dust in a chair and counting the days? DISD will be a perfect fit.

[smdebnam]

Here is the TRS Benefits Handbook which details how retirement is calculated:
https://www.trs.texas.gov/TRS%20Docu...s_handbook.pdf

Most school districts publish their compensation rates on their websites. Your friend should consider benefits in addition to salary. For instance some Districts contribute more towards the employee's rate of health insurance than other Districts do.

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by jdallas

sounds like your friend is going to be a real asset to those children. Another future pensioner gathering dust in a chair and counting the days? DISD will be a perfect fit.

Even DISD doesn't want late career changers who are clearly just looking for another pay check. OP will likely end up at a charter school, who churn through teachers even faster than ISDs like Dallas. OP's plan is very transparent. This isn't to say that people who choose teaching later in life are ill suited to teaching or have no career prospects. But there needs to be a story behind it and you have to very carefully market yourself to a school. Given OP's post here, I'd say those skills are severely lacking for him/her.

[LarryTX]

Folks, this was not for me, this is a question for a friend of mine, who is coming to DFW from overseas. I am a little disturbed that a retired military veteran would be seen as "gathering dust in a chair". He, like the rest of us, seeks a career with a stable retirement, decent pay, and one in which he can contribute back to the community. This just happens to be his second career.

Age ? Does age discrimination exist in the ISD hiring ? He enlisted in the military at age 18 and will be 40 years old, retired. Military career was spent teaching and training other soldiers and foreign military counterparts. His is fluent in Spanish, FYI. Has a 4-year BA degree.

Thank you

[smdebnam]

Here's a link to TEA's Alternative Certification Process:

Becoming a Certified Texas Educator Through an Alternative Certification Program

[Soonhun]

Originally Posted by LarryTX

Folks, this was not for me, this is a question for a friend of mine, who is coming to DFW from overseas. I am a little disturbed that a retired military veteran would be seen as "gathering dust in a chair". He, like the rest of us, seeks a career with a stable retirement, decent pay, and one in which he can contribute back to the community. This just happens to be his second career.

Age ? Does age discrimination exist in the ISD hiring ? He enlisted in the military at age 18 and will be 40 years old, retired. Military career was spent teaching and training other soldiers and foreign military counterparts. His is fluent in Spanish, FYI. Has a 4-year BA degree.

Thank you

I'm sorry if things have come off as rude. People are occasionally quick to jump and may have made the conclusion because the thread made it sound like your friend picked teaching for money and stability (and being an "easy" job in the eyes of many) instead of because the individual had a passion and heart for teaching. Not to say they are correct, I don't know your friend to judge, but I do believe it is somewhat an understandable conclusion (though I disagree with throwing out the accusation).

[NoClueWho]

Don't listen to these folks. A rough district like Dallas ISD that has high employee turnover and is filled with students who need discipline before they will be receptive to instruction would probably snatch a retired military person up very quickly. The most important part of teaching is classroom management, because you could know your subject matter inside out, but if you can't control your classroom, you won't get anything taught anyway. So with that in mind, an older, retired military applicant who wants to teach rough public school kids in a mostly impoverished school district would probably have prinicpals fighting to hire him or her. The subject he or she is trying to teach and how in demand it is has a lot to do with job prospects as well, though.

[loves2read]

Your friend can't just apply for a job because he is retiring from the military---
He or she has to have some type of educational training---to be hired as a teacher--
A sub in most districts just needs a college degree and gets paid per diem...
It can be difficult to get called to work because most districts have sub-finder systems that lets teachers "ask/program" for a specific sub to come for that a sense...

To be a teacher you need a college degree and either a degree in education or go the route to get certified by "alternative methods"
S/he can Google Texas Education Agency

Found this Texas Teacher Qualifications | Steps to Becoming a Texas Teacher doing Google search

In better rated districts (and almost all districts are going to be slammed by new ratings set up by the legislature so their rating will look like crap) a teacher who is not certified does not pull as many positive points w/the TEA rating system---so principals don't like to hire teachers who went through the alternative certification process because they usually have to teach a year to finalize their "alternative certification" process...meaning they are vulnerable their first teaching year and don't help the district's ratings...

I am retired teacher--took early retirement at 55 because SS laws regarding spousal benefits was being changed and a way to protect my spousal benefits was being closed
I used my teaching plus years working for Tx Dept of Human Services and years as I could buy (3) to add to my experience to total 20 yrs experience...
I have some friends I taught with who have more than 35 yrs teaching experience--and most of them did the retire/rehire route 15 or so years ago---but it is not easy to last long enough to earn a pension...
Right now the state legislature has failed to pay enough of its share toward teacher retirement to give retired teachers a pension increase in the 12 yrs I have been retired...
We are also facing severe reduction in our medical benefits for retired teachers--again because the state legislature refuses to pay its fair share toward medical benefits...

My husband retired w/o any medical benefits from his employer--
We both have been using TRS health care as a supplement to Medicare A and B--which we both worked for and earned enough credits to have...the best part of TRS health care for us (and I paid for Tier 3 coverage--the most expensive) is that drug coverage is included and does not have a donut hole...
This year any TRS retired teacher w/Medicare A and B was forced to move to version of the Medicare D drug plan--but w/o the donut hole...
Next year--2018--unless the Legislature is willing to contribute a significant (and I mean BIG) contribution any teacher or spouse w/Medicare A & B is going to see big increase in their costs---
Most of them likely will find less expensive coverage and drop TRS which will hurt the plan even more since the Medicare eligible participants are costing the plan the least---
Plenty of teachers in TX did not pay into SS system--only TRS--and thus get no Medicare coverage...

Your friend may not worry about medical benefits at retirement because s/he has access to military health care. And I don't know if s/he will qualify for SS in addition to a military pension...

BUT your friend might want to investigate how any SS benefits will be impacted under current rules (since you can't predict what will happen 20 yrs from now) regarding how SS pensions are impacted by teacher's pension---the Windfall Elimination tax is one SSA rule that impacts SS benefits

[Denver303TJC]

When I taught overseas I had a friend who was in the service and was also a prison warden in a past life. Needless to say, his classroom was dead quiet when he taught and he later got promoted to head teacher at a bigger school. I think some people on here thought he just wanted to run out the clock and get a DISD pension, but to me it sounded like he put his time in with the military and now wants to be a teacher. Nothing wrong with that, I know many people think teaching is an easy job (not true) and I can tell from firsthand experience that classroom management is huge, so if your friend can be a strict, but liked teacher, he'd do well. My mom's teacher friend taught for 40 years and now has two pensions (albeit in CO and not TX), so it's doable. I also dislike the teachers who put in little effort and are just running out the clock until retirement, but I'm assuming your friend isn't that type of teacher.

If he has a degree, then I'd recommend going through TX Teachers for his certification. If no degree, that may be an issue...